In this forum we all seem to struggle with what is normal. As our kids are so young we they can not be tested. Would it be nice to share how you have noticed your kid being is different than others? It might also help us to find out what is "normal" or not We could come back later to add more when things surface.

I was waiting for my DD to finish up dance yesterday and while I waited I was struck with how different she was as an infant. There was a 9 month old baby in the waiting room who is full of personality. She really is adorable, but I guess she is what we would classify as 'normal'. She hasn't really started talking but is vocalizing syllables such as Ma and Da. I just kept thinking how much I was in denial because not only was DD talking in complete sentences by 9 mths (Okay, talking in sentences by 6 mths) she already knew all of her ABCs along with a long list of body parts and had started to count. DD could also scribble with control and was able to draw circles by this time. Yet at this time in her life I really had no idea that was not normal and any family member that brought it up had me laughing and thinking of course you think that. Who doesn't think their child/ granddaughter/ etc is the most special thing that ever walked the planet?

Hmmm... normal? DS plays baseball like a 5 yr old. He also can't tie his shoes yet, though I think it's more of him not wanting to rather than can't do it. Though I know some "normal" 4 year olds that can do it.

I never learned to tie shoes the normal way. People kept talking to me about rabbits and holes and whatnot. Yech. It just wasn't meant to be.

As far as my DD is concerned, I am painfully aware that the reading thing is far from normal. Otherwise, I have to read the milestones charts or whatever to figure it out. I have no intrinsic sense of what is normal or not normal. And I'm fairly certain that none of the kids we hang around are normal.

DD6 was so aware at birth, looking at us with those big eyes as if to say "I can't talk yet, but I'm watching you" It was my sister in law that kept pointing out that babies don't do the things she does , like being able to point out most of her body parts by 7 - 9 months,(I thought it was just because I told her what the parts were whenever I changed her) knowing all her letters and numbers to 10 before 12 months old, even when DD spelled her name at 14 months, then asked me if that was her name, I still didn't get it. After all her name was on wooden letters in her room, she just looked at it long enough to memorize it, right? She also loved to count diapiers and books. She would line them up from our living room to our family room, use to drive me crazy now I wish I had taped it. When little sis came along she was 19 months old, DD was thrilled! More diapiers to count, she was counting past 100 before 2yrs. Honestly I don't think it really hit me until she was 2.5 I was at a teachers store looking for books for her to read, because the ones at home were too hard or too easy. Another mom in the store commented after she saw DD reading at a table that it was a shame there are not any good schools around here for gifted children. That's when I started looking things up about gifted children. Hope that helps

I have a profoundly gifted brother, my mom says there were no signs at all before he was school age. With the exception that at birth he looked around the delivery room, calm and alert, taking it all in. He was also always careful, for example he refused to fingerpaint due to it getting paint on the hands. He didn't talk early, didn't read early, pretty clumsy as a kid, not needy or high energy, etc. The only other thing my mom has said is that it was relatively easy to have him at the same time as a son 18 months older, because from fairly early on they were interested in the same level of toys.

My own DS 2 is too young to know how gifted he is or isn't, but I think he's definitely bright and especially with regard to memory and interest in symbols. I don't have a good sense yet about creativity or ability to figure things out.

From about 6 weeks very high needs as far as stimulation went, beginning about 3 months he groaned as if in physical pain if not completely continuously shown novel and interesting things, this lasted until he could walk, a very long time as he walked at an average time. It wasn't just direct attention he needed, but to learn about things in long sittings, reading, pointing out things, singing past being hoarse, etc. Pretty unpleasant for everyone (him included because he was only temporarily sated).

Sense of humor has been a big one, he enjoys verbal humor and inventing words. One of the earliest was making silly contractions, like "Boo Mommy" turned into Bommy which was hilarious to him. When we tell other two year olds his jokes they just stare with no response, so I assume they don't do that type of humor yet.

His memory has been surprisingly good, compared to other kids and especially compared to the adults in his family. Around 22 months he started to ask for his various songs on CD by the number of the CD and then the song number on the CD, rather than the name or by words from the song. "play song 10, CD number 2" And then next ask to listen to another combination and it would end up being the same song on a different CD. "Song 21, CD number 4". I think most other kids his age either sing the songs or just listen, not request each version in a row via their numbers.

Another memory example, today I said a riddle, "what's a blue bird but not a bluebird" (he's been asking for "bird games" lately and that was what I came up with) and he replied "indigo bunting, we were in the car and mommy saw one in the wheat field, but it flew away" (I was thinking of blue jay which we see all the time, but instead he remembered an unusual event 4 months prior where he didn't actually see the bird, just heard about it and saw me look it up later).

Also I find he is specific in his answers than other kids, and cares a lot about being exact. He links things he's read in books to real life. For example, the other day someone asked, "what made those holes in the ground?" and he answered, "could have been megazostrodon" (perfectly reasonable answer as that is a small rat like mammal, except that it died off about 200 million years ago). I am pretty sure megazostrodon appears in some book of his, though no picture and no mention of digging.

At 2 and 3 mo he loves numbers and counting. He loves rearranging his fridge numbers and saying one hundred twenty three, a hundred thirty two. He gets the thousands wrong sometimes. I don't even know what most 2 year olds do regarding numbers, not much. He makes snail collections in order to count them. The highlight of any trip to town is the house numbers. With the numbers its more the love for it than the accomplishment part that seems unusual.

Polly

I didn't realize DD3.5 was atypical until about 18 to 20 months-old. A friend of mine pointed out that it wasn't typical for a child that age to know her colors. Then I told my friend the rest of it -- DD recognized all letters, numbers thru 9, knew many letter sounds, some sight words, etc. I thought it was because DD was so intense about me repeatedly reading to her, talking about the colors of the crayons and just interacting in general. She's my first-born so DH and I were quite naive about developmental milestones, especially since DD didn't start to take off until 18 months.

We used to get funny looks from my DB when DD would get on the computer by herself, launch the web browser, find her website in the drop-down menu and begin playing -- at age 2. At the time it seemed natural to me, but now that she's older and we have another DD16mo, I can't believe she was only 2 years old and using the computer by herself. The thought of it makes me chuckle because it seems so ridiculous.

Now DD3.5 is reading easy-readers all by herself without having ever seen the books before -- we're very proud! Her preschool teachers have been floored (I let them figure DD's abilities out on their own so I wouldn't sound like a crazy mom).

On the flip side, I'm a GT adult, but my DM does not tell stories about any unusual behavior from me before starting school. I was an easy-going child who always wanted to please. I didn't realize I was GT until I started reading up on all of this stuff. Go figure.

Polly, This sounds so much like my son (now 7) that I am shocked. He did walk at 10 months, but nothing like talking way early or anything. He, too, did the CD/song by number around age 2, and the christmas he was 3 1/2 he got so into calendars that he could tell you what day of the week any date in 2005 2006 or 2007 was, jsut because he had been studying them. I did think, when he was almost three and he told me, "Mummy, Nine has two n's in it!" that he was sort of unusual, but I really had no idea. We had his tested a year go because he was behaving badly (unusual), we think due to lack of stimulation at school, and he came out in the 130s (frankly, I had thought it might might even be higher). He has now skipped second grade, and is doing 4th gr maths, having just turned 7. Your kid is one to watch!

DD has been pretty advanced from day 1. Every pediatrican visit we´ve had the pediatrician has commented on this. However, it wasn´t until her 4 month visit when the pediatrician clearly said what she was doing was NOT normal in any way whatsoever and that she was the most advanced baby that she´d ever seen that it really made us think.

DH and I are both gifted so it wasn´t really a shock to us. However, she does seem quite a bit ahead of where both of us were at her age. She´s been early across the board with speech (first words at 6 months), gross motor skills (first steps at a little over 8 months), and fine motor skills (was signing early on). We also get a lot of comments from random people on the street about her...

She´s also a VERY demanding little girl. I´m wondering if she might have some sensory issues but I´ll probably make another post about that later.

When DD5 was 6 weeks old I was having lunch with my DD and mother-in-law and walked through the restaurant to the restroom to change DD. When I was changing my daughter a woman came in and told me that she was having lunch with her husband who was a pediatrician and he said he had never seen an infant so young with total head control (DD was spinning her head around looking at things as I walked through the room). She said that her husband said that DD was going to be very highly gifted.

I smiled, thanked her and went back to changing DD. Frankly I was so exhausted and postpartum at that point that all I was thinking about was sleep. I also thought that head control as a predictor of IQ seemed a little far-fetched. Who knows though?

When she was born she moved her head from side to side and looked around the room. Everyone commented on it...my OB, the nurse and the pediatrician who had been called because she was premature.

She hit all of the markers really early for a full term baby and then when you subtract for the "premie" status it was almost ridiculous.

Then, there have been things that havent moved so fast...and then moved ahead with leaps and bounds. It is all very interesting.

We once did a totally unscientific survey of early head control here on the forum, and anecdotally, it seemed to be a good predictor of HG+ness. Many of us thought it was weird that our kids had early head control, but we'd never put that together with the GTness until so many other people here had seen it in their GT kids, too.

I'd love to see a study on it. I suspect there's some correlation.

The biggest moment for me, though, the moment when I couldn't ignore it with DS8, was when he was about 8 months or so--crawling and cruising, but not yet walking, and not really talking yet. He banged his Hot Wheels car on the wall and I said no. He stopped immediately, then he systematically tested the rule so that he understood the limits for behavior with Hot Wheels cars. He experimented with every permutation of using a car on the wall and the floor--banging and rolling, right hand and left hand--and each time he stopped the second I told him "no," a behavior was off-limits. He was entirely scientific about it. I felt like I was dealing with a much older child.

Once he understood the rule, he followed it from that day on. I never had to explain it again and he never broke it.

I remember having a strong, almost eerie sense that most toddlers probably weren't like that...

With DS5, it was a more recent realization. Just after Christmas 2008, he started doing addition in his head. It was all very sudden, and he moved from addition to addition of large numbers (10s of thousands) with carrying, to subtraction with renaming, and now he's multiplying 2-digit numbers in his his head. It's a big change--I wasn't even thinking he was GT before Christmas!

So DS8 started quick out of the gate and moved steadily all along. DS5 is my leaps-and-bounds kid.

I'd like to read that thread. Can you find it? I did a couple searches and came up empty.

I don't really know what "early head control" means. All my kids could hold their heads up quite well by 2 months, measured by being able to face outward in the Baby Bjorn carrier by that age. I have no idea if this is early, but I always turned them outward as early as possible so they could see the world. The eldest and youngest looked and looked at everything. DS7 studied at the face of whoever was carrying him --- for so long (many minutes; can't remember exactly) that I used to worry he'd strain his neck. People used to comment on it.

They could all follow an object for 180 degrees from a very early age, but I can't remember how early. DS9 (eldest) just did it the first time I tried it. I don't know how old he was; I was reading ahead in the "What to Expect" book.

Is this what you meant, Kriston?

Val

Hm. DD was also one of those lift-the-head-and-look-around-in-the-delivery-room babies. I honestly didn't think anything of it until weeks later when we were out & people commented on it. I guess most newborns are just these lumps that lay there mewling? I dunno. I guess, in retrospect, there is probably a reason DD looks so much more aware than a typical newborn in our photos. At the time, I really thought we were just better photographers than most people. Everyone said she didn't look like a newborn.

Interesting thread! I never thought of my kids early physical milestones as signs of giftedness. A lot of people thought I was pushing them (especially when they learned my kids were out of diapers before their 2nd birthday), but I don't think I did anything different from what other parents do. For example, when my kids pushed to a stand in my lap, I let them stand there as long as they wanted even though they were very young.

The things that surprised my most were the early pincer grasp and self-feeding at 5 months and "terrible twos" tantrums before 12 months.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table paying bills when my 15 month old came into the kitchen. Without even looking at me, he pushed a chair to the counter, climbed up, got a cup out of the cabinet, and then climbed down and put the cup on the floor. Then he did the same thing to the fridge, getting out the milk and chocolate syrup, then to the drawers to get a spoon. Without ever once looking at me, he sat on the floor and prepared himself a cup of chocolate milk. He drank it then went back to his room to play, leaving a mess on the floor and me staring at him dumbfounded.

One thing my kids were *not* early about was talking. I hear so much about gifted kids talking early, but my kids all spoke late. Two of them didn't speak until almost 2 years old and one didn't speak until almost 4 (however, this one could read as soon as he started talking).

I've been thinking about this since I posted yesterday...it is interesting that other people have noticed the early head control thing.

The whole question of recognizing our children’s giftedness is very interesting. Of course not all HG kids do all things early so sometimes it is easy to question if maybe we have overestimated their giftedness. I know that happens to me.

Then, something happens that blows me away. The other day I was looking for websites for DD while she was sitting on my lap. I got to BrainBusters (not a site for kids) and clicked on a logic game and opened a new game (Fillomino) without looking at the instructions. I was looking at it and trying to figure out what we were supposed to and DD took the mouse and started clicking. I tried to stop her and then I realized that in just seconds she had figured out both the objective and the solution and even the mechanics of where to click to fill in the blanks.

I suspect the thread is older than a year old, Val, and thus doesn't show up in searches anymore. I can't find it either. Sorry! I promise that it really did exist!

I would say that your definition of what constitutes early head control is pretty accurate, Val, though I would also say that many people talked about babies pretty much coming out holding their heads up or at least trying to. I know in our case, nurses and grandparents remarked upon it for both of my kids even before we left the hospital--so within the first 48 hours. We didn't know any different, so it wasn't a big deal to my DH and I at the time. But when I see babies now, I can see the difference.

DS8 was something of a battering ram. He didn't have total control, but he tried, and he had a really big head. He'd hold it up for a while and then lose control and swing it around, or he'd seem all floppy and then all of a sudden would lift his head fast to see something, totally disregarding the safety of whomever was holding him. He regularly head-butted me while I was feeding him because he was so unpredictable. Once in the first couple weeks of his life, I think he might really have dislocated my jaw as he picked his head up fast to look at a noise. It hurt! It still clicks sometimes.

DS5 had a smaller head and did a better job of holding it still and not clubbing me with it. He had a lot more control, right from birth. Much easier!

FWIW...

The head control thing is interesting. Both my kids were born 3-4 weeks early. But were trying to hold their heads up almost immediately. They were also very alert and aware newborns. I have many pictures of them eyes wide open. My DS especially didn't even want his head supported. He'd get cranky. He was just generally a little bit bitter until he could crawl! Then he was happy as a clam.

My mother talks about when I was born one of the OB nurses carrying me around at the hospital showing me to all the other nurses because I was the most alert newborn she'd ever seen. Never thought of that as being a GT thing, but who knows!

The doctors and nurses made a huge deal about how alert my boys were at delivery. I just assumed it was because they both have really big eyes! LOL! They did have great head control and good eye tracking very early. Even as very young infants, they always seemed interested and curious, never wanting to miss the action.

Our eldest nearly "frog jumped" off of the table at 9 days old when we were getting newborn photos done. I remember the photographer making a big deal out of that too. (Of course, this was the only time he's ever been ahead of the curve for gross motor skills)

Looking back, I guess I didn't realize these things would be the first (and nowhere near the last) times of people noticing, commenting, etc. about how different they are. Eldest DS had a day recently when everyone seemed to notice him. (Wow, he can read? How long has he been reading? Ohh, Ohh, read this! Wow, he can multiply? . . .) I told DH that DS is a "circus freak" -where everyone points and stares! Sometimes, I think "normal" sounds so perfectly inconspicuous!

Sorry! Did I sound bitter and grumpy?? Rough day today.

Huh, DD was also very alert right after birth. As was seen by her screaming at me for 2 days in the hospital and not sleeping one bit! She also had great head control and I remember thinking it was funny that I had seen newborns on TV whose neck couldn't hold up their heads. Also, I can't remember a time when she couldn't hold up her head when lying on her stomach.

I know my parents said I was also extremely alert as a newborn. DH on the other hand apparently slept all the time! No clue about his head control, though, but I'd wager it was pretty good since he was very early with his gross motor skills.

Only thing I remember DD did not do early was rolling. I remember us waiting anxiously for her to roll and the day she turned 5mo she learned to roll on her right side and 2 weeks later on her left. She actually could sit by herself before roll on both sides. We also had a 11mo old baby having terrible two's...

We got fridge magnets when she started walking bit over 10mo and she was amazed with the fact that they stay on the fridge door. She walked around the apartment for a week trying to get them to stick on other places. She did the same thing with her wall stickers and seemed puzzled for a while why do the magnets only stick on the fridge and dishwasher. It was lot of fun to look at her.

Now at 27mo her puzzle building abilities are not comparable to any other child I have seen. She also constantly surprises us with her understanding about reading. She does not read although she knows that letters makes sounds, what is the direction of reading, she can tell what letters word start with and has sight words. Few times we have not been sure how she was able to figure out what a sign said but at this point we do not believe she reads and make explanations for her LOL

On saturday we walked on the airport and there was a coffee shop. DD has never been in one or seen us carrying a paper coffee cup as we make our own coffee at home. She pointed the huge "coffee" sign from the far and told me there is coffee. We explained it to our self that she must have smelled the coffee from far away and that is the reason she knew the sign said coffee:) The weirdest thing is that we do not call coffee "coffee" as our home language is not english. Then the next day she was drinking from my husband coffee cup which has a text saying "I'm crabby before I get my coffee" she claimed it said crabby where it actually said coffee? I think she is using some of her reading knowledge to guess what words say and she might get lucky sometimes.

The very first thing that stands out was that my DS never put a thing in his mouth. When he started to crawl I went through the entire house on hands and knees looking for possible choking hazards... I needn't have bothered, not one thing ever went in his mouth. While I found it pretty odd, I didn't really think about it until he started writing the alphabet at about 11 mos. That was the day I officially freaked out!

I guess I a still having problems with this. It's hard to really wrap my head around the things DD is doing that aren't normal. At 2.5 she recognizes all letters Upper and Lower case, can match them, knows their sounds, can do beginning and ending letters in words, counts everything, and not just rote counting like most kids her age, but actually counting. I never realized it wasn't normal for kids not know most colors by 18 months, or that apparently most kids don't know the difference between pink and purple until around 4....she has known this since well before 2. She's alreading is writing most letters, recognizes site words.

I guess one thing that happened really early, that at the time I assumed was normal.....I can't remember exactly when, but it was sometime after 12 months, but before 18 months, DD began memorizing entire books.... these were short board books, but after reading them once to hr she woulld memorize the entire thing. Now at 2.5 she memorizes books with over 500 words after hearing them only twice.

She also while not reading yet, completely surprises us by "reading" signs. She obviously recognizes words. The other day we placed an icecream place that has been closed for a long time. We have never been there. There sign is still up. And DD knew we were going for icecream and asked if we were going to that ice cream place as we got near it.....It had no pics or anything around to help associate, it jut said xxxxxxx icecream. DH and I were both floored.

Well...I'd be cautious about identifying something like not putting things in the mouth with giftedness. I think that putting things in the mouth or not is more of a preference on the part of the baby/child.

Just my 2c.

Val

True, it probably is a preference. However both of my guys stopped mouthing MUCH earlier than most children so I think that it's a pretty interesting idea.

Great thread! It' so true that we have warped sense of what is "normal!"

DD6 was also very alert and aware of his surroundings at birth. He cried for a couple of seconds and then just stared around the room and at me with this little "o" shape to his lips. The funniest thing I can remember though, is when he was 2-3 months old, my dh would read him this story about a funny little monster who tried to sound scary. The "monster" would try to sound scary (and dh would make the noise and show his muscles), but he wasn't scary at all. The little monster just sounded silly and made everyone laugh. I assume ds didn't know what we were reading to him, but he started making his own little monster noise and motion with his body (arching his back, scrunching up his face, tensing all of his muscles, and making a little noise) when dh would get close to the moster-noise part of the book. So, after that we'd just say, "show us your monster!" and ds would do it on command. We thought it was hilarious and definitely curious, but we had no idea what we were in for! LOL

Ds also talked in complete sentences very early and always pronounced words correctly from the beginning. No developmental mispronuciations of words. I'm a speech therapist, so I always thought that was different.

I was labeled gifted and sucked my thumb until I was 5. But it's an oral fixation, not because I put everything and anything in my mouth. DS never sucked his thumb or took a paci and NEVER put anything in his mouth.

It's not the label of a paci/thumb sucker that they were talking about, Val, but babies learn by putting things in their mouths... so not doing so at this age or that age (the normal "baby sticks everything in mouth" age) will either mean the child is slightly ahead or slightly behind the "game".

DS5.5 never had to have his head held, and he "stood" pretty much right at birth (would push against my legs if I put his feet on them). He also physically pouted after I said something and pouted myself (at him) at less than 2 weeks old.

This, I think, is normal. DD did it too, and my research indicated that newborns have a primitive walking reflex.

Standing is a primitive reflex. Whether the infant can do it or not, really depends on their muscle tone. Some babies are naturally more stiff, and some are naturally more floppy. Premies tend to be stiffer and stand sooner. And of course, fatter babies are at a disadvantage for supporting their weight. There are also differences in races across the continuum.
Tone for standing peaks around 2 months, and sometimes the standing totally disappears til about 6 months. Loss of standing is considered normal, but it doesn't always happen.

When we see a baby that is standing as a newborn, it's only concerning if there is arching of the body, with head being way back. It can be a sign of pain (usually GI reflux) or neurological abnormality. Also, lying on your back tends to encourage "extensor tone" which helps with primitive standing, while lying on your stomach encourages "flexor tone". These are called the tonic labrythine reflexes in case anyone wants to look them up.

Oh, I know. His was just unlike any other newborn that I have ever held - including his baby sister. She would push, but not push up to a standing position like he did. Everyone always commented on it. He also rolled early and held his head up early. and of course, I thought something was wrong with DD b/c she couldn't at a few weeks.

I didn't notice anything unusual about my sons (now age 7) until their second birthday. They were given 24 piece puzzles by my MIL (who, of course raise DH, so had some experience with this). I was ready to put them into storage until the boys were older, but turns out to be an appropriate difficulty for them. Then I did some research, and realized other things they did were also unusual. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that a young toddler's first words usually aren't identifying letter of the alphabet. What stood out was that they were very very slow with gross motor and didn't speak many 'real' words at the time. Thus, we worried they might be slow.

One of the difficulties in understanding that my sons were not, in fact delayed, was the fact that they had very poor gross motor skills (still do) and followed the family tradition (from both parents) of talking late, and then suddenly becoming intelligible when they were speaking sentences - except letters, of course, and a handful of other words.

Looking back, I remember a comment or two from the nurses in the regular nursery (after NICU for prematurity) explaining to me that their eyes tracked better and they were more alert because they had 'more experience' looking around than children who spend the last two months in utero. That comment was 3-4 weeks before their due dates, and she was comparing them to other 4 week old babies so her reasoning for her comparison didn't make sense, but I didn't question it at the time, or think much about it because I didn't know there were any differences and I was a sleep deprived new parent. I remember repeating it to my grandmother when she commented on it.

My youngest is now 14 months old. She is entirely different from her brothers. She doesn't get overstimulated, but understimulated, which drives me batty. She has been physically very strong and advanced with gross motor stuff and also with her receptive language, loves wooden puzzles, knows at least some shapes and colors and a few letters, and has a terrific memory. One thing that is the same, is that she is somewhere on the slow side of things with expressive language and does not seem to want to follow a typical pattern of early speech (her brothers went from incomprehensible to an enormous vocabulary between 25 and 26 months old). She rarely tries to say the same thing more than twice, usually once, and if I don't get it, too bad. I was kinda hoping she would break family tradition there. Nope. I don't know where she will be, or is, on the gifted spectrum, but I suspect she is at least quite bright, but probably not PG. Just a guess.

Hmm...I'm not convinced. My eldest is 9 and has skipped two grades and has further acceleration in 2-3 other subjects. He never put things in his mouth. Ever.

My daughter is 5. She skipped kindergarten and does 2nd grade work in reading and language arts. Today she spent the 20 minute drive home from school barking at me to give her more multiplication problems. She started putting her fingers in her mouth before she was a month old. We had to hide everything from her because everything went into her mouth. She still puts stuff in her mouth!

So: two kids, equally gifted, polar opposites on this point.

Some of the correlations I've seen here are nice anecdotes, but I'm not convinced that a lot of them are causally related to giftedness. I did a couple Google and PubMed searches and didn't find anything to support things-in-mouth with giftedness (not that my searches were exhaustive!).

That said, I'm pretty sure that figuring out how to use your hands is a two-three month milestone (see Physical under months 2 and three on this site.). So using hands before this time could be considered a potential marker for giftedness.

My understanding of neonatal behavior is that alertness in the delivery room is common, but that constant alertness after that in the first weeks of life is not common.

I'm not trying to be a bummer here. This is just an example of the scientist in me!

Val

Yup, I have two kids, one HG+ for sure and one that I suspect is, and they were also polar opposites in terms of putting things in their mouths when they were babies.

One sucked his thumb--usually when he was thinking--but put nothing else in his mouth ever. He stopped sucking his thumb at 3yo, the very second the dentist told him to stop and gave him reasons why. He never sucked his thumb again.

The other child hated pacifiers and was never a thumb-sucker, but he would have put a Buick in his mouth if he thought he could get away with it! Nothing was safe!

I actually love that we can discuss these things as most of us only have experience with our own kids so it is hard to know if something was normal or not.


We genuinely believed at least for 18mo that every kid can does the same than DD. Then now if we look back she was advanced in almost everything but at that point we were just concentrated on her development and not comparing it to others.

LOL - you've just summed up my DS. I haven't a clue what LOG he is. At (almost) 4 DS still tries to put toys in his mouth.

DS7 was like that sometimes. I think he might still put something in his mouth, if I were unwise enough to remind him not to do so. But then, even as a toddler he would also take apart small fiddly things and not put any of the pieces in his mouth. I think it just depends on how the kid wants to interact with their environment and their people.

I like this. DS's affinity for a specific tactile experience has prompted odd looks and questions from past and present teachers. DS engages his environment differently.

We just adopted a son. Yippee! We are surprised at his incredible strength and alertness.

Even though he is adopted, DS knows who I am and quieted to my voice within 3 days (probably because I breastfeed him).

He smiled at 3 days old. He smiled at the same spot in a song I sang him, so that I could get him to do it on demand.

His ped noted his "remarkable muscle tone" at age 1 week and he has been able to stand since birth. (master of none: DS was born early and remains in the 5th percentile for height and weight, but we understood that SGA babies often lack muscle tone, so we're thrilled.)

He rolled over from his tummy to his back at 3 weeks old.

He's been able to sit propped up since birth. Yesterday DH sat DS 2.5 mos. on the couch and he fell asleep for 30+ minutes sitting up.

Last week, as I had him on his belly, DS crawled six inches to the end of the diaper changing table, about four body scooches before I caught him.

I don't know if DS 2.5 mos. is going to be GT but we are very happy he's strong and alert.

Congratulations SeaBlue! That is great news, and great that your SGA baby has good tone. And is already trying to move and is so alert. Sounds like an active life ahead of you!

my ds 3.5 walked late, potty trained late, and has sensory integration disorder. he walks on his toes, licks tail pipes and cats, freaks out about loud sounds. i knew he'd have trouble in school bc of his serious dislike for noise, texture, and change. so i was a little surprised that after he turned 3 he wanted to learn to read, when i said he was too young, he taught himself. now i have a 3.5 year old who can read kindergarten level books and do simple math 2 years before he can attend kindergarten. i find myself so often watching him and thinking "is this normal?" lol. now i KNOW he will have trouble in school- overly prepared academically, but not socially.

i'm glad i found this forum, i was just telling dh that i was doubting my son's abilities and maybe thinking it was normal for a 3 year old to teach himself to read. we have a screening coming up, and i'm glad i found this place to help me refocus on my son and his obvious needs.

thanks.